News

Please note: this update was written on Thursday 5th November, before Tier 4 COVID-19 guidance was introduced.

This has been an incredibly challenging year, and whilst uncertainty and worry continues to be part of our everyday lives, everyone at the Rangers Charity Foundation would like to send our warmest wishes to our supporters, the thousands of people we strive to make a difference for and of course our friends across the wider Rangers Family. 

Since my last update, the full Foundation team, with the support of the Foundation’s trustees,  has been working tirelessly to adapt our community programme delivery, respond to hundreds of requests for support and to find new ways to raise vital funds in support of our work. 

Our #AFoundationFromHome initiative throughout the months of lockdown was extremely successful and enabled us to support our communities in a whole range of ways.  You can watch a short video here to hear about just some of the ways that we were able to make an important difference.

During the summer, we worked hard behind the scenes to prepare new safe operating procedures ready for a gradual transition back to face-to-face delivery for many of our community programmes.  The need for support in our communities has arguably never been greater, whether that be supporting young people with employability skills and confidence, providing opportunities to take part in physical exercise and reduce social isolation, helping veterans facing personal barriers and challenges, to assisting young people in schools to engage in their education and to reach their potential.

Here are just some of our achievements and milestones since August:

• Our Hub in the Community initiative launched in two new secondary schools, with Hub Officers Mark McKinven and Ryan Tait taking up their exciting roles in Drumchapel High School and Knightswood Secondary School.  Our Hub initiative in Govan High School continues with Hub Officer Scott Smith leading our work there.
• Supported by staff and community coaches, over 90 young people now attend our SQA accredited centre at Ibrox from 14 secondary schools across the city through our Wider Achievement programme.
• We have been delighted to welcome back veterans to our Ibrox Hub for our weekly Glasgow Veterans United programme in partnership with Glasgow’s Helping Heroes.
• Our ever-popular Football Fans In Training programme has been back up and running for seven weeks, with over 80 men and women taking part.
• Autism Friendly Football returned in September and has over 40 young people participating each week.
• The Foundation’s Visually Impaired Football for young people is due to start once again this Sunday.
• We are pleased to be back in many of our partner Primary Schools, with our Joy of Moving programme and Show Racism the Red Card programmes being delivered across 21 classes of pupils.
• The Foundation is also preparing to launch a new mental wellbeing programme for men in the coming weeks, which we believe will be especially needed during these challenging times.
• Our new CashBack for Communities programme – Towards New Futures, will launch on Monday, and we are looking forward helping young people move forward in their lives.  As part of our preparation for this programme expansion we were delighted to welcome Derek Rhoddan to the Foundation team in October in the role of CashBack Coordinator. 
• Since the start of the season, we have responded to 249 requests for support and continued to be as generous as we possibly can with donations such as items of signed memorabilia and letters of support from first team players where our compassion is needed.
• We’ve extended a number of our existing charity partnership to the end of the calendar year so that we can continue to fundraise towards our partner pledges and share the valuable work which they do.
• We’re helping to coordinate the Club’s observance of Remembrance at Ibrox on Sunday and sharing a virtual can collection in support of Poppyscotland. As the Club and Foundation is unfortunately unable to welcome veterans to Ibrox for the game due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a number of free RangersTV viewing passes have been offered to Veterans related charities, including Poppyscotland and Erskine, so that veterans are able to become ‘virtual guests’ and enjoy the match from home.

Our fundraising plans and events for this year have, not surprisingly, been significantly impacted.The backing we receive from supporters and the wider Rangers Family is never something which we take from granted, and we continue to be humbled and grateful for the way in which you have boosted our fundraising and morale.Whether it be individual acts of kindness, taking part in online raffles and auctions, the support of the Club and Club sponsors, we cannot thank everyone enough and hope that you feel proud of what the Foundation is achieving for others in your name.I also hope that our Simply The Best Night In event this Saturday evening will be a great success and of course a really enjoyable watch!

On behalf of everyone at the Rangers Charity Foundation, thank you for your continuing support, keep safe, and, when you’re able, please keep up to date with our work to support others.We always enjoy the opportunity to share news about our wonderful charity!

Best regards

Connal Cochrane

Rangers Charity Foundation Director